Tools Understanding the CRC

Communicating for change

How to build links with the media

We can draw up a strategy outlining how we intend to use the media and who in our organisation should deal with media enquiries. We must outline our objectives in contacting the media, and draw up the key messages we want to get across during our campaign. This could include: a news conference, a field trip, an organised event, an education pack for schools, a spokesperson, photographs of the organisation's work, a case study, etc.

A strong news story tells people something new. It can be about health, jobs, education, economics or the environment. There is often a conflict or a controversy, and there may be an element of surprise. If the story is for TV or print it should have interesting visual images.
Six questions to answer when planning a media campaign

1. What is the news angle?

2. What do you want to say?

3. Who do you want to say it to?

4. Who should talk to the media?

5. What visual images are available?

• 
  Be clear about what you want to achieve
  
• 
  Steps for planning and implementing campaigns
  
  • 
    Identify your audience
    
    • 
      Target a small group (even 5 people) that has the power to change things, not the general public
      
    • 
      Have extensive knowledge of who you are trying to reach and what moves them
      
  • 
    Have clear, simple and concise messages
    
  • 
    Start with systematic planning that is reviewed and then revised
    
  • 
    Decide who does what
    
  • 
    Decide and make the case for what actions are needed now
    
  • 
    Match strategy and tactics to target audience
    
  • 
    Match your strategy to your budget
    
  • 
    Talk to experts
    
  • 
    Look at your campaign as a commercial or marketing strategy: consider your audience as if they were clients. You want them to buy your ideas.
    
  • 
    Examples of campaigns
    

• 
  Ban landmines
  
• 
  Don’t Mess with Texas (US): to decrease litter on highways and ban fighting
  
• 
  Global Campaign for Education
  

The art of writing a press release

Jas Kaminski, Communications Consultant, UNICEF ROSA
Young Champions can convey key messages by writing press releases, which journalists turn into press reports. Jas Kaminski started by distributing press reports that were based on the same press release. The Young Champions realized that different journalists highlight different messages. It is therefore important to know how to write clear press releases that journalists can work with.
The primary purpose of a press release is to deliver something newsworthy to news outlets. A press release must be clear, interesting and, above all, relevant. There are three types of press releases. News-driven releases that react to news events and provide information that the world wants. They are produced rapidly, depending on the quality of the information from the field. When done well, this type of release is the easiest to place in the media. Agenda-driven press releases attempt to interest the world in a subject important to you (e.g. AIDS orphans). These are not easy to get placed and depend on a good ‘news peg’. Necessary releases are relationship-driven, in order to satisfy a relationship you have with another organization. They have little news value, but help to advance a broader aim.
How to structure a press release

• 
  First sentence: gives the most essential facts, grabs the reader’s attention, and includes news items and key facts
  
• 
  Begins with a lead paragraph summarizing the 5Ws: what, where, when, who, why
  
• 
  Has a clear purpose
  
• 
  Clearly states the issue, action and impact
  
• 
  Contains news which adds value to public debate
  
• 
  Contains several sources
  
• 
  Includes good quotes to make the story interesting
  
• 
  Is well-timed and pegged to current events
  
• 
  Must be new
  
• 
  Must be a good story
  
• 
  End of the last paragraph leads into the next paragraph
  
• 
  Uses active as opposed to passive voice
  
• 
  One to two pages in length
  
• 
  Gives the dateline at the top: starts with location/secondary location (source of story), etc.
  

Interviews with the media

Gabrielle Galanek, Consultant, Education and Gender Equality, DOC, UNCEF NYHQ

Brigitte Stark-Merklein, Communication Officer, UNICEF NYHQ

A media interview can be an excellent way of publicizing your organisation's work, aims and concerns. It can also bring more credibility to your organisation. This session began with a video interview, acted out by Gabrielle Galanek, followed by a discussion of its weaknesses and suggestions for improvement.
Interviews are either live or recorded. The advantage of a live interview is that all your answers will go out on the air. The advantage of a recorded interview is that you have a second chance to answer a question. However, most recorded interviews are edited before being transmitted so you do not know which answers will be broadcast.
Reporters generally prefer to talk to someone directly involved in or affected by an issue rather than a press officer. Whoever is interviewed should appear confident, speak well, and offer interesting anecdotes or case studies.
Whether the interview is for print, TV or radio, you and your colleagues should prepare for it. Ask yourselves the following questions:

• Why are we doing this interview?

• Who is the best person to be interviewed?

• What message do we want to get across?

• How can we make those points?

Make a brief list of bullet points to jog your memory and practice a few answers out loud.

A good interview reveals interesting information expressed in a compelling way. To be a good interviewee you should:

• speak clearly, concisely and with authority

• be well informed and prepared

• sound enthusiastic and interested

• be prepared to answer all questions on the topic

• keep calm

Meena Manch: a strategy for change

Jas Kamninski, Communication Consultant, UNICEF ROSA
Through animated film and comic books very difficult social issues can be portrayed in sensitive, non-threatening ways, without losing the story’s impact

(McBean & McKee, 1996)

Meena Manch, according to Jas Kamninski, is a good example of the three-tiered communication strategy employed by UNICEF: advocacy, social mobilization, and behavior change communication. Young Champions can use Meena material to change audiences’ attitudes and behaviours towards issues that impact the girl child.

Through the clever use of animation as an agent of social change, Meena tackles the disadvantages that young Asian girls face by both influencing the development of children’s behaviour and changing the attitude of adults responsible for the care of children. She questions prevailing social norms and broaches the possibility of alternative scenarios in which these young girls can realize their full potential. Mithu, a parrot and her best friend, is deployed to reinforce key messages through repetition.

Meena is not only a tool to communicate behaviour change. As an advocacy tool, she increases political commitment to improve the status of young girls in South Asia. As an instrument of social mobilization, Meena is the catalyst for cross-sectoral partnerships between government agencies, NGOs working for women and children, the media and private sector. Such alliances are essential to create an enabling environment for young South Asian girls through education and health services, as well as legal protection systems.


Count Your Chickens
Meena's father does not allow her to go to school. So Meena sends her parrot Mithu to memorize the school lessons, and through him, learns how to count. One day, while counting the family’s chickens, Meena notices that one of them is missing. Her quick alarm helps catch the thief. The village headman’s praise for Meena’s counting skills makes her parents realize the value of sending her to school - fulfilling her dream.

Meena Manch forums in India have led to numerous achievements. Meena Manch girls have stopped child marriages, boosted the enrollment and attendance of children in schools, and spread awareness about hygiene and nutritional practices. Studies reveal that over 90% of teachers and parents have noticed that girls communicate more freely, and are more confident and assertive. Some 85 percent of the teachers believe that the Meena activities has made teaching more interesting. Participating children share that they feel motivated by the engaging story telling sessions (97%), and the personal encouragement they have received from teachers (98%).

Over the past 18 years, the Meena communication package has evolved into various media: animated films/videos, comic books, discussion guides and posters, and two radio series. Today, Meena is at home in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Bhutan and Southeast Asia, and plans are currently underway to roll Meena out in Afghanistan.

Meena themes	Contacts in UNICEF country offices
Say No to Dowry - Preventing dowry practice Too Young To marry- Preventing early marriage Count Your chickens- Girl’s access to education Who’s afraid of the Bully? - Resisting teasing of girls by boys The Girls Come Back- Trafficking of girls Meena’s Three Wishes- Water, sanitation, hygiene and education	Afghanistan - Savita Naqvi and Freshta Taj Bangladesh - Mira Mitra Bhutan - Miraj Pradhan India - Michael Galway Nepal - Deepa Pokharel and Sharad Ranjit Pakistan - Attiya Qazi and Zohra Nisar Hunzai

Girl Stars as role models

Chetana Kohli, OIC Education Section, UNICEF India
Chetana Kohli introduced the Young Champions to Girl Stars, another tool that Young Champions can use to encourage behaviour change on girls’ education. In fact, the Young Champions from Bangladesh have already produced two episodes.
Girl Stars is a multi-media campaign based on the true stories of 15 young women from underprivileged backgrounds who changed their lives by going to school. By showcasing these role models, Girl Stars aims to encourage girls to stay in school. Its target audience is girls of 10 to 16 years at risk of dropping out of school in India. Its secondary audience is parents, grandparents, village elders and others who play an important part in deciding whether or not girls stay in school.

Girl Stars was conceptualized and created by UNICEF and Going to School, a non-profit trust based in New Delhi which creates media to make education fun and relevant to children’s lives. The girls themselves are independent role models who were not supported by UNICEF or Going to School.

Bhanwari the police woman
‘Education helps you to see what is wrong with the world

and gives you the confidence to question it.’
Bhanwari is a police constable in Bikaner district (Rajasthan). Bhanwari was married when she was a child, but she still went to school. Although Bhanwari failed and had to repeat one school year, she persisted, and one day at school she heard about the famous policewoman called Kiran Bedi. Bhanwari decided she would be a police officer too – she thought this way she could begin to change the world. Now 24 years old, Bhanwari is part of the police force and she has a ‘women’s desk’ where she listens to the problems of women in her district and tries to help as much as she can.

Girl Stars first identifies the girls, and then seeks to convince parents and communities to showcase their stories in movies, books, radio episodes, posters and a calendar. Now, people have started identifying their own girl stars and this has become a souce of pride for schools. The easiest part of the process was to develop the material; the greatest challenge is in using it, obtaining new material and receiving the parents’ approval.

Directory: resources -> files
files -> Useful online resources
files -> First quarter
files -> Training manual on international and comparative media and freedom of expression law
files -> Computer Science Quick References Employee Details
files -> Montgomery County Office of Community Partnerships Asian and Middle Eastern American Community Resource Guide
files -> Disability History Timeline
files -> How to Get the most out of your iep
files -> Impact evaluation of issbd african Regional Workshops 1992 – 2015
files -> Knock Out Teams Strategy By Marty Nathan
files -> First quarter

Download 0.52 Mb.

Share with your friends: